SIT Iceland and Greenland: Climate Change Course

SIT's Iceland study abroad program is amazing. From experiencing the city in Reykjavik, to traveling the country, to staying in Isafjordur with host families, it is truly life changing. Being extremely interested in Climate Change, this program fostered everything I love about the subject. My favorite part was the Independent Study Project, where I research how Iceland teaches the next generation about climate change. You also get to choose where you live for your last month to conduct your research which is the best part. I chose to stay in Isafjordur, where we are located with host families, because so many of us fell in love with the town.

This experience was so special, I still think about it every day. People considering this program should be passionate about climate change, ecology, and geology, but you don't have to be majoring in any of those things. Just be ready to learn and take initiative in your research projects! I developed some amazing friendships with my group members, and the program mentors, Lisbet and Dan, are some of the most incredible educators and mentors I have ever had. In this program you will bring together many disciplines, but most of your time is spent exploring the *mindblowing* nature of Iceland. If you love hiking, swimming in the freezing ocean, and seeing beautiful views then you will love this program!

Studying in Iceland provided me with a very unique opportunity to study climate change in a place where the extreme effects are being felt everyday. This program provided a hands on academic opportunity and amazing experiences traveling around the coast of Iceland. I learned so much on this program and developed interests in new areas that I had not focused on before. The highlights of my time in Iceland included homestays, attending the Arctic Circle Conference, and the development of individual research projects that resulted in a final presentation. The natural environment of Iceland never ceased to amaze me and each day brought something special. Double rainbows, northern lights, and endless vistas were the norm throughout my time in Iceland.

The study abroad experience was phenomenal for the leaders and people I did it with. There were tons of opportunities to bond and explore these beautiful locations. This is a great learning experience for both living alone or with a small group of friends abroad and also for learning about how the climate is changing the areas you're living in for the semester. The homestay is a particularly valuable opportunity to immerse yourself in Icelandic culture and make connections with people from a completely different background. The ISP was also a fantastic opportunity to plan and execute your own research question. This program really excels in giving you the freedom to explore what you're interested in and follow your passions, so to make the most of it, you should be curious and explore outside the classroom!

I learned a lot about climate change (Dan, the professor for all the classes, is great). I came in with almost no knowledge of environmental science (I'm a physics major) but was still able to keep up in the classes. We didn't get much busywork, so there wasn't much stress and a lot of time to go sight-seeing. They also took us to do some big sight-seeing things (we saw a lot of waterfalls, we hiked on a glacier, we went to the Blue Lagoon, etc.), which was really cool.

We mostly stayed in hostels, where there were 5-8 people per room, but we only shared a room with other people from the program. In the hostels, we got breakfast, which was nice, and were given a food stipend for lunch and dinner. The food stipend was very generous, as long as you cooked your own food and didn't eat out very much.

We had one 3-week homestay, which I really enjoyed. I loved my host family and have stayed in touch with them. One person in our group had trouble with their host family and was moved immediately.

Overall the program had an equal number of positives and negatives. Some positives include the freedom I got for each paper to write about a topic that I was interested in and comfortable with. The Academic Director was challenging but extremely helpful. In all honesty, professors can make or break a class, and I thought my Academic Director really made the course the success that it was. Another positive was my homestay. It was originally advertised as an 8-week homestay, but it turned out to only be 3 weeks. My family was wonderful and fun, and even though the three boys (all under the age of 8) did not speak English, we were able to communicate a little through games. There were some negatives as well. I was on the first semester of the program, and there were some logistical mistakes and some tweaking that still needed to be done. But I'm sure that as the program continues it will get better. Unfortunately, I didn't think my classmates were as flexible or understanding as they should have been, considering that this was the first semester. There were a lot of cliques in my program, and it was not very diverse. Unfortunately, SIT programs have a high rate of grade inflation. Meaning that no matter how poorly you did on a paper, the academic Director (who does all of the grading) is still expected to give you a better grade. Whether that appeals to you or not, I think it is dishonest. My AD, however, did not grade this way (and I know this because I almost never got the grade I wanted, I always got a worse one). He was honest and hard with his grading, which made me work even harder. Throughout the semester my grades improved significantly, and now I can look back on this program and say that this was where I learned how to write a scientific paper. The Academic Director is very bright and you can tell he is passionate about this program, even one month into the first semester. He challenges his students in multiple ways, whether he is testing your time management skills or writing skills. I feel that I can talk to him about anything, and I know I am biased because not everyone feels the same way. He doesn't act like an average professor who you only see for an hour or two in the day, like you would any other professor at a university. For the first three weeks, the Academic Director lived with us in the same hostel and was a part of our social lives outside of class. I got to know him as a person rather than just the professor. And I think if he continues to work for this trip in particular, he will make it a huge success for semesters to come.

We were always traveling, so it made it hard not to feel like a tourist (even in a town I spent 9 weeks in). Also, a part of this issue was due to the fact that I didn't speak Icelandic and I didn't want people to go out of their way to speak English.

I wish I knew how rude and disrespectful SIT headquarters has been towards me, my classmates, and the Academic Director. Throughout the whole program (even before and after) I felt like SIT headquarters didn't support me.